LIVE | Lava from the La Palma volcano enters another neighborhood and causes new evacuations | PHOTOS

The lava that flows since last September 19, Cumbre Vieja volcano, on the Canarian island of La Palma (Atlantic), it advances through the urban area of ​​the La Laguna neighborhood, which fears that it will face the same fate as neighboring Todoque, since the magma has already disappeared.

In the last hours the lava has advanced through the urban area, evacuated a week ago, destroying a service station and approaching the church square and the school.

According to the newspaper El País, at night, the advance of the washings have forced the emptying of some 50 homes in the neighborhoods of Las Martelas in the municipality of Los Llanos de Aridane, and Marina Alta, Marina. Baja, La Condesa and Cuesta Zapata in the municipality of Tazacorte. Many of them had already suffered confinement recently. The residents of these neighborhoods rushed to dump their basic belongings in cars and vans, coordinated by the Civil Guard and advised by workers from the Tazacorte City Council.

This was, 24 hours ago, the most pessimistic scenario for the crisis committee, which hoped that the most active streams would be channeled through several troughs that they would find in their path and head towards the sea, without causing more damage than those already caused. .

“We have been a volcano for 31 days. We all had some kind of hope, but the reality is that there has not been a single day of truce “, said this Wednesday Noelia García, mayor of Los Llanos de Aridane, the municipality that saw the neighborhood of Todoque and now contemplates, astonished, how history repeats itself with the nucleus of The lagoon.

Now hopes are placed on the group of streams that crosses that neighborhood continue its advance towards the south of the mountain of the place, because if it went north there would be “an undesirable scenario” of damage, razing new buildings and many crops to along the coast road.

LAVA MOVES VERY SLOWLY TOWARDS THE SEA

Another of the streams is located 130 meters from the coast, and about 80 meters from the cliff, but an imminent fall into the sea is not expected because its movement is slow and has evolved very little in the last 48 hours.

If it reaches the sea, it has already been planned to order a confinement of the population due to the probable emission of hydrochloric acid gases.

The scientific spokesperson for the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca) -in charge of monitoring the eruption and supervising the actions-, María José Blanco, has pointed out that the new emission center that yesterday emitted very dark columns has begun to have strombolian activity today .

It has also warned of the possibility of earthquakes of intensity VI (slightly damaging), after one of 4.8 was recorded last night, at the moment the highest magnitude since the eruption began.

Regarding air quality, the authorities assure that there is no problem for the populated areas in the vicinity of the volcano and have indicated that, after the haze subsides, it is “moderately good, and in the worst case, fair.”

As for the emissions in the upper layers, one of the satellites of the Copernicus program has captured an image of a column of sulfur dioxide en route to northeast Europe.

This is heading towards this area after flying over the Iberian Peninsula, France and the United Kingdom.

The area affected by the eruption is already 807.85 hectares, 27.96 more than yesterday, and the maximum width between the interior flows is 2,900 meters, according to data that could not be updated in recent hours due to adverse weather conditions. .

The affected crops occupy 245.88 hectares and, pending new data from the Copernicus system, according to the cadastre there are 1,122 buildings destroyed, of which 902 are for residential use.

Meanwhile, work continues to start up two portable desalination plants installed in Puerto Naos to guarantee the irrigation of the plantations affected by the volcanic eruption.

The idea is that they begin this Saturday to inject water into the network if the tests that begin this Wednesday “go well”, as the Minister of Ecological Transition of the Canary Government, José Antonio Valbuena, has announced to Efe.

DRONES TO RESCUE DOGS ISOLATED BY LAVA

Amid concern about the advance of magma, the future of a group of dogs, isolated for days by lava in an area that has been evacuated for weeks, keeps the population on edge.

This Wednesday was the marked moment for a specialized firm, hired by an animal rights organization, to test if it can get them out of there with their modified transport drones.

After some hopeful tests, an unexpected problem has arisen: the dogs are not there, or at least the drones do not see them, not even with thermal cameras, apparently because the high temperatures in the area have made them take refuge in the shade of some bush or of any item that has survived the ashes.

Neither the company, nor the animal rights group that has promoted the operation, Leales.org, throw in the towel and announce that they will continue looking for the hounds in the hope of giving a little joy to thousands of palm trees who have been subjected to torture for a month. slow motion of lava flows over hundreds of houses and farmland.

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